1. Field of the Invention
The present invention related to life vests, and more particularly relates to a life vest which is equipped with an improved safety harness structure useful for example in offshore drilling platforms and life environments, the harness providing attachment to a suitable secure member thereby preventing injury after an inadvertent fall of the wearer, while not unduly restricting the wearer's normal activity.
2. General Background and Prior Art
In the offshore area of Louisiana, oil workers and the like are required by governmental regulations and by good safety practice to wear at all times a life vest which can be made of a pliable buoyant material. These life vests are bulky and cumberson, bur are a necessity since the workers are always exposed to the threat of drowning if they fall into the Gulf waters below. This problem exists in similar offshore oil or industrial areas such as the North Sea, the West Coast, the Mideast, and the like.
A further danger is seen in that many offshore workers work on rigs, fixed platforms, drilling platforms, derrick barges, and like structures which can be elevated a great distance above the water surface. Such offshore workers are required to wear the pertinent buoyant life vest in order to save them from drowning, but this is of little utility if the man falls from a high elevation such as one hundred plus feet before impact.
It is to this problem that the present invention is directed. Often, a worker in the offshore environment will be required to expose himself to falling from great heights while is is performing a particular task. In addition, the standard for transferring men from crew boats to the particular offshore structure is a conventional "personnel net". These nets are comprised generally of a pair of rigid ring members and have a cross-work matrix of ropes forming a netting therebetween. The personnel transfer nets are equipped with an upper lifting eye to which a crane mounted on the offshore structure attaches a liftline for raising the personnel net from the deck of the crew boat to the structure. This transfer can often be over a great vertical distance. Thus, there is the danger that an individual riding the personnel net could fall and injure or kill himself. Further, the problem of riding the net without injury is compounded by the problem of adverse weather conditions such as high winds which may rock the net from side to side or hold it suspended at a substantial angle with the vertical. Such a phenomenon is seen especially where only one individual rides the net and its weight is not sufficient to hold the net in its normal vertical position. This would particularly be a problem in the North Sea area where weather is often foul and accompanied by high winds.
In summary, passengers have fallen from personnel transfer nets for the following reasons:
1. Fear of the height; PA1 2. Feet slipping from the bottom ring and failing to maintain hand hold on rope webbing; PA1 3. Violent motions of basket due to gusting winds; and PA1 4. Incompetent operation of lifting crane.
It should be understood that each person who travels out to a rig on a crew boat is required or should at least wear a life vest in order to save himself from drowning in the event he would fall into the water. Likewise, such life vests of cushioned pliable foam or like buoyant material are worn by the offshore workers as they travel from the crew boat to the platform on the personnel nets.
The worker may be exposed to falling from heights in other areas about an offshore rig or like structure, such as working along the upper railings as may be experienced for example by a painter who is applying paint to the railings of a drilling rig or similar structure which are exposed to the corrosive salt atmosphere of the offshore environment.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,322,828 (G. Salaman), provides a "Device for use in Saving Life at Sea." The Salaman device consists of a tubular ring flotation device similar to the common life ring. This device incorporates a strap which is used to secure the individual to the device and has the dual purpose of securing the individual to another person or object in the water. It is apparent that the device has the primary function to be used in case of abandonment of ship by a person who must go into the water, rather than being used by a person who might possibly fall into the water by accident. The design of the strap is insufficient to support an individual at the end of a fall and also keep any bodily injury to a minimum. Further, no cooperative structural relationship exists between the tubular flotation ring and strap in contemplation of withstanding such a force or jar.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,452,374 (J. W. Turner), provides a "Thigh Type-Weather Deck Survival Restraint Harness." The Turner device has a complicated series of straps that could take a substantial amount of time to put on, especially if the device was left laying loose on the floor and then picked up to put on by an untrained individual. Item would be most likely unacceptable to safe operating procedures due to the strap complexity. This device also does not provide a restraining strap of safety line as part of the harness to prevent the wearer from being swept overboard or falling, although it does provide rings for securing the wearer in the cockpit of an aircraft. This device would be almost impossible for use in the offshore oil or construction industry due to its complicated nature and the lack of training of the typical offshore worker.